Award Winner:

Justice Miriam A. Vogel (Ret.) and Justice Charles S. Vogel (Ret.)

Charles S. Vogel has spent the last 50 years lawyering, judging, lawyering again, judging again, and now arbitrating and mediating with JAMS. After nine years in private practice in Pomona, Chuck was appointed to the Municipal Court in 1969, then elevated to the Superior Court in 1971, where he served as Supervising Judge of the Law Departments. In 1977, he returned to private practice first at Nossaman, Krueger & Marsh, then at Sidley & Austin, and during the ensuing years served as president of the State Bar of California, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. In 1993, he returned to the bench, this time the Court of Appeal where he served for 11 years, including stints as Presiding Justice of Division Four and as Administrative Presiding Justice of the Second Appellate District. In 2004, he retired from the Court of Appeal to join JAMS, where he now serves as an arbitrator and mediator. One of his most defining characteristics is the ease with which he has been able to move between the bar and the bench with a perspective few can match.

Miriam A. Vogel got a slower start, graduating from law school at 35 but then she too alternated between lawyering and judging, practicing law for 10 years, judging for more than 22 years, and now practicing law again at Morrison & Foerster LLP. After a year in a prestigious clerkship with the late Justice Robert S. Thompson in Division One of the Second Appellate District, Miriam practiced civil and appellate law with Maiden, Rosenbloom, Wintroub, Vogel & Fridkis. She was appointed to the Superior Court in 1986, where she too served as Supervising Judge of the Law Departments. In 1990, she was elevated to the Court of Appeal, to the same division where she had clerked in 1975. During her 18 years on the Court of Appeal, she authored more than 2,700 opinions, including many with far-reaching effects. In 2008, she returned to private practice as Senior of Counsel with Morrison & Foerster where she is a member of the firms appellate group, writing briefs in the same crisp style in which she wrote so many memorable opinions.

Together, Chuck and Miriam Vogel bring 85 years of experience to their legal endeavors. As the only married couple ever to serve simultaneously on the California appellate bench, they brought and continue to bring to the legal community a complete commitment to service and a genuine affection for the law, and it is for these qualities they are honored.

BEACON OF JUSTICE AWARD

Created by the FRIENDS OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY LAW LIBRARY in 2005, the BEACON OF JUSTICE AWARD is given to those whose character and outstanding service to the legal community, especially in the areas of access to justice and legal information, education, scholarship, writing and/or journalism, and public service and/or advocacy, have inspired others and brought them the respect and admiration of the legal community. Past recipients are Justice Norman L. Epstein (2005), Justice Earl Johnson (2006), Shirley & Seth Hufstedler (2007), Justice Arthur Gilbert (2008) and
Chief Justice Ronald M. George (2009).